Jackie Cooper: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
m Reverting possible vandalism by 97.73.64.142 to version by 24.16.7.86. False positive? Report it. Thanks, ClueBot. (562438) (Bot) |
|||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
'''Jackie Cooper''' (born September 15, 1922) is an American [[Academy Award]]-nominated [[actor]], [[Emmy Award]]-winning [[TV]] [[television director|director]], and TV [[Television producer|producer]] and executive. He was a [[child actor]] who managed to transition to an adult career. As of 2009, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in ''Skippy'' is the oldest nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor of which the nominee is still living. |
'''Jackie Cooper''' (born September 15, 1922) is an American [[Academy Award]]-nominated [[actor]], [[Emmy Award]]-winning [[TV]] [[television director|director]], and TV [[Television producer|producer]] and executive. He was a [[child actor]] who managed to transition to an adult career. As of 2009, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in ''Skippy'' is the oldest nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor of which the nominee is still living. |
||
==Biography== |
|||
===Early life=== |
|||
Cooper was born '''John Cooper, Jr.'''<ref>Birth certificate name was not "Cooperman", but "Cooper" - his father's surname. Confirmed at the State of California. ''[[California Birth Index]], 1905-1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California.</ref> in [[Los Angeles, California]]. His father, John Cooper, left the family when Jackie was two years old. His mother, Mabel Leonard Bigelow ([[married and maiden names|née]] Polito), was a stage pianist<ref>[http://www.classicmoviekids.com/cooper.htm Jackie Cooper page in Classic Movie Kids, a collection of rare photographs of the child actors and child actresses of yesteryear<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and former child actress.<ref>[http://www.geocities.com/~childactors/jackiecooperpage.html Jackie Cooper Page in Bob's Child Film Stars Photo Gallery<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Cooper's maternal uncle, Jack Leonard, was a screenwriter, and his maternal aunt, Julie Leonard, was an actress married to director [[Norman Taurog]]. Cooper's stepfather was C. J. Bigelow, a studio production manager.<ref name="Book8">{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Jackie|authorlink=|coauthors=|title=Please Don't Shoot My Dog|publisher=Penguin Group|date=1982|location=|pages=40|month=|url=|isbn=0425053067}}</ref> Cooper was an [[Legitimacy (law)|illegitimate child]]; his mother was [[Italian American]] (her family's surname was changed from "Polito" to "Leonard") and his father was [[Jew]]ish.<ref name="Book4">{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Jackie|authorlink=|coauthors=|title=Please Don't Shoot My Dog|publisher=Penguin Group|date=1982|location=|pages=9|month=|url=|isbn=0425053067}}</ref><ref name="Book3">{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Jackie|authorlink=|coauthors=|title=Please Don't Shoot My Dog|publisher=Penguin Group|date=1982|location=|pages=44|month=|url=|isbn=0425053067}}</ref><ref name="Book1">{{cite book|last=Harmetz|first=Aljean|authorlink=|coauthors=|title=Rolling Breaks and Other Movie Business|publisher=Knopf|date=1983|location=|pages=108|month=|url=|id=ISBN}}</ref><ref>[http://wise.fau.edu/~jdennis/_private/sample02.htm Invention of the Teenager<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
|||
===Start of acting career=== |
|||
[[Image:Jackie Cooper in Broadway to Hollywood trailer.jpg|left|thumb|200px|from the film ''Broadway to Hollywood'' (1933)]] |
|||
Cooper first appeared in the short ''[[Boxing Gloves (film)|Boxing Gloves]]'' in 1929, one of the ''[[Our Gang]]'' comedies. He was signed to a three year contract that was to expire in 1932. He initially was only a supporting character in 1929, but by early 1930 he had done so well with the transition to sound films that he had become a major character. He was the main character in the episodes ''[[The First Seven Years]]'', ''[[When the Wind Blows (1930 film)|When the Wind Blows]]'', and others. His most notable ''Our Gang'' shorts explore his crush on Miss Crabtree, the schoolteacher played by [[June Marlowe]], which included the trilogy of shorts ''[[Teacher's Pet (1930 film)|Teacher's Pet]]'', ''[[School's Out (1930 film)|School's Out]]'', and ''[[Love Business]]''. |
|||
Other movie studios liked Cooper's work. In the Spring of 1931, [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] signed him as well as recurring Our Ganger [[Donald Haines]] to a long term contract to star in features. Both Jackie Cooper and Donald Haines walked off the Our Gang set during the production of the second to last episode ''[[Bargain Day]]'' to begin work on their first feature film over at Paramount. His first non-''Our Gang'' role was in 1931, when [[Norman Taurog]] hired him to star in ''[[Skippy (1931 movie)|Skippy]]'', for which he was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]]—the youngest actor ever (at the age of 9) to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor. Jackie would remain at Paramount while at the same time Donald Haines would leave Paramount to return to the more child-friendly Hal Roach Studios and resume his recurring ''Our Gang'' role on time for the start of the 1931–1932 season (when ''Our Gang'' was depleted because several long-time major characters would not return for the new season) until 1933 and continue on in other Roach short subjects after that. |
|||
[[Image:JackieCooper.JPG|right|thumb|250px|The handprints of Jackie Cooper in front of [[The Great Movie Ride]] at [[Walt Disney World]]'s [[Disney's Hollywood Studios]] theme park.]] |
|||
The movie catapulted young Cooper to super-stardom. ''Our Gang'' producer [[Hal Roach]] sold Jackie's contract to [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] in mid-1931, as he felt the youngster would have a better future in features. He began a long on-screen relationship with actor [[Wallace Beery]] in such films as ''[[The Champ]]'' (1931), ''[[The Bowery (1933 film)|The Bowery]]'' (1933), ''[[Treasure Island (1934 film)|Treasure Island]]'' (1934), and ''[[O'Shaughnessy's Boy]]'' (1935). A legion of film critics and fans have lauded the relationship between the two as an example of classic movie magic. However, Cooper later revealed that Beery was a violent, foul-mouthed drunkard who was disliked by those with whom he worked. Cooper said Beery had been abusive toward him and was one of the cruelest, most sadistic people he has ever known. |
|||
===Adult years=== |
|||
[[Image:Jackie Cooper in Gallant Sons trailer.jpg|left|thumb|200px|in ''Gallant Sons'' (1940)]] |
|||
Not conventionally handsome as he approached adulthood, Cooper had the typical child-actor problems finding roles as an adolescent, and he served in [[World War II]], so his career was at a [[nadir]] when he starred in two popular [[television series]], ''[[The People’s Choice]]'' and ''[[Hennesey]]''. |
|||
From 1964-69, Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures [[Screen Gems]] TV division. He was responsible for packaging series (such as ''[[Bewitched]]'') and other projects and selling them to the networks. He reportedly cast [[Sally Field]] as ''[[Gidget]]''. Cooper seemed to thrive at this job, acting only once during this period, in his TV-movie debut "Shadow on the Land" (ABC, 1968). Cooper left Columbia in 1969 and started yet another phase of his career, one in which he would act occasionally in key character roles (namely the short-lived 1975 ABC series ''[[Mobile One (tv series)|Mobile One]],'' a [[Jack Webb]]/[[Mark VII Limited]] production), but mostly he devoted more and more of his time to directing dozens of episodic TV and other projects. His work as director on ''[[M*A*S*H (TV series)]]'' and ''[[The White Shadow]]'' earned him [[Emmy]] awards. |
|||
Cooper found renewed fame in the 1970s and 1980s as ''[[Daily Planet]]'' editor [[Perry White]] in the ''[[Superman film series|Superman]]'' film series starring [[Christopher Reeve]]. |
|||
===Personal life=== |
|||
Cooper has been married three times: to June Horne (1944–1949) (with whom he has one son, John "Jack" Cooper, born 1946); Hildy Parks (1950–1951), and (since 1954) to Barbra Krause (with whom he has three children - Russell (born 1956), Julie (1957–1997) and Crissy (born 1959)). |
|||
Cooper's autobiography, ''Please Don't Shoot My Dog'', was published in 1982. The title comes from director Norman Taurog's threat to shoot young Jackie's [[dog]] if he could not cry in ''Skippy''. Cooper has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]], at 1501 Vine Street. |
|||
Cooper announced his retirement in 1989, although he was still directing episodes of the syndicated series ''[[Superboy (TV series)]]''. He began spending more time raising horses at his home outside San Diego. He occasionally returned to the soundstage for retrospective and documentary programs about Hollywood in which he had toiled for the entire sound period to-date, and even some silent films. |
|||
Cooper is one of the few living ''Our Gang''ers from the original series. Other surviving members are [[Dorothy DeBorba]], [[Dickie Moore (actor)|Dickie Moore]], [[Shirley Jean Rickert]], [[Jean Darling]], [[Robert Blake (actor)|Robert Blake]], [[Jerry Tucker]], and [[Jackie Lynn Taylor]]. |
|||
==References== |
==References== |
||
Revision as of 22:28, 2 February 2009
Jackie Cooper | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jackie Cooper in 1989 | |
| Born | John Cooper, Jr. |
| Occupation | Film actor |
| Years active | 1929 — 2006 |
| Spouse(s) | June Horne (1944–1949) Hildy Parks (1950–1951) Barbara Kraus (1954-) |
Jackie Cooper (born September 15, 1922) is an American Academy Award-nominated actor, Emmy Award-winning TV director, and TV producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to transition to an adult career. As of 2009, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in Skippy is the oldest nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor of which the nominee is still living.
References
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2008) |
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jackie Cooper.
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Jackie Cooper at AllMovie
- Template:Tv.com person
- Photographs of Jackie Cooper
Template:1978-1987 Superman film series
Template:Persondata
{{subst:#if:Cooper, Jackie|}}
[[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1922}}
|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:LIVING}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default = 1922 births
}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:LIVING}}
|| LIVING = | MISSING = | UNKNOWN = | #default =
}}